I love to read about how great people accomplish great things. It’s similar to getting advice — I’m left with a high. I imagine that if I can follow the instructions, then I too will accomplish what they have. It’s a logical and tantalizing idea: follow the prescription, get the reward. In practice, it tends to fall short.
Kapil Gupta and Naval Ravikant did a great interview where they touched on this pitfall.
The catch is, to achieve something truly remarkable, you have to do something new. It’s practically in the definition. Copying others can help you learn a domain. Imitation is good practice. But to do something new — to create art — you inevitably have to write your own script.
I expanded on these thoughts in a Twitter thread here, also touching on how prescriptions can act like false Gods.
Also published on Medium.